#1
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I think this is the real name of Norio Hanzawa, rather than vice versa - GMCL seems to think so at least. In either event, they're the same guy, and currently unlinked.
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#2
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Generally GMCL is pretty trusted. However, there's only one other Japanese site that mentions the alias, so I'm not sure where to go with this. Some corroborating evidence is that the dates don't overlap, implying an official change in what he wanted to be called (although he mostly used NON.) However, I can find some places where he's still credited as Kazuo as late as 1997:
http://www.jbook.co.jp/p/p.aspx/7152/s Assuming they are the same person, I don't think it's clear which is the real name. |
#3
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"Trouble Maker" is originally from this album: http://vgmdb.net/album/3729
In this case NON and Kazuo Hanzawa are both credited on the same album (check the back scan). Although it's not uncommon for an artist to use different aliases on the same album or even the same track. |
#4
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Kazuo and Norio were still unlinked more than a year later, so I finally linked them together because they're definitely the same person. Which one is the real name, though, that I still don't know. And boy would I like to, this is one of the most crazy talented guys out there (emphasis on "crazy").
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#5
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nice one ya, he is brilliant. whenever there's a discussion about mega drive music going on i instantly suggest alien soldier, that game's soundtrack is mindblowing.
oh, reminds me. recently i noticed that this release has simpsons arcade music on it, which was written by him. could he be added? he appears as N. Hanzawa in the game credits, for what it's worth.
__________________
iridescentaudio.co.uk |
#6
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Norio Hanzawa (#1587)
Hanzawa was also a composer for the 2nd Sin & Punishment.
Why haven't they released an official OST for either of those games??... |
#7
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GameMusicComposerMEMO lists Norio as Kazuo's alias. I know this is not direct confirmation, but this site is pretty accurate with aliases and what not.
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#8
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I posted a little bit about NON's name a while back, buried in another thread. He has a profile on some music production company's site under the name Kazuo, but he's registered with the Canadian copyright agency exclusively as Norio, and as far as I know it's only real names there. He doesn't make it easy.
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#9
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! This is definitely strange. I've asked Aki Hata on Facebook but got no response. Perhaps I shall seek out another one of his former associates and see if they answer.
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#10
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I posted a question about Kazuo Hanzawa in a discussion thread for Castlevania: The Adventure, and I thought I'd post it here as well:
http://vgmdb.net/forums/showthread.php?t=1974 Basically, I'm asking which tracks you think Hanzawa did, based on knowing his distinctive style from other games he worked on alone... |
#11
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Minor, unexciting bump to explain a kanji edit on the Norio profile:
The only source I've seen giving "Norio Hanzawa" in kanji as 半沢紀夫 is the soundtrack for Yu Yu Hakusho: Makyou Touitsusen. Everything else I've been able to find lists his name as 半沢紀雄: Guardian Heroes, Sin & Punishment: Star Successor, and Gaist Crusher. |
#12
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So the primary appearance of the 半澤一雄 name is in conjunction with works by director Satoshi Kameoka and his company/brand/something Silentvision: https://web.archive.org/web/20050307...le_D.N.P..html. (It does also appear, randomly, for composition of Mischief Makers's vocals.)
Every time Hanzawa's name is listed in English in a Silentvision work, it's romanized as Ichio, not Kazuo. On the website, on videos, and even on a CD (DIGITAL NATURE PARADISE, which I'm going to add in a sec). So I'm not sure that "Kazuo Hanzawa" was actually ever correct. Thanks again, GMCL! (Though there is a stray credit to "N.KAZUO" in Konami's Cue Brick.) |
#13
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So either there's a possible third name, or Kazuo was just never correct?
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#14
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Unless you can find an actual official credit for it somewhere, it doesn't seem like Kazuo was ever the correct reading of the 半澤一雄 name, no.
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#15
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Does Konami's Cue Brick not count? |
#16
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If 半澤一雄 was a real name then it would surely be read Kazuo Hanzawa, which is why several sites (English and Japanese) went with it. But since it looks like he made it up, it seems that he made up the reading of Ichio for it as well. Yes I mentioned that earlier, the stray credit to "N.KAZUO." Why do you think that's Hanzawa and not someone named Kazuo N.? The presence of other names like "O.MASANORI" (Masanori Ohuchi) suggests it's a person whose family name starts with N. |
#17
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Also, not that they can be trusted as legitimate sources, but there are many places on the internet that list Cue Brick as part of Norio Hanzawa's gameography. For example, here or here or the description here. Again, who knows how legitimate those sources are, but it does kind of help the notion that Kazuo N in Cue Brick is meant to be Kazuo H aka Norio H. Perhaps try searching "Norio Hanzawa" along with "Cue Brick" to see more of the places where Norio is credited with Cue Brink. Maybe there's a more official listing that I didn't come across. All in all, I think it's still really unclear what his name is and that it could be any of the three: Kazuo, Norio, or Ichio. |
#18
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One other thing. I tried to figure out anyone named Kazuo N who worked in video game music in general around this time and all I could come up with was:
Kazuo Noguchi - Worked at Namco around the time of Cue Brick, but who knows, he could have been freelance. (Actually, all of his Namco credits are from 1988 and Cue Brick is 1989, so...) Kazuo Nii - Was a Sunsoft employee but only seems to be active starting in the 90s and on. But ultimately, I think it's likely that Cue Brick's Kazuo N is not Noguchi or Nii. |
#19
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Sorry, ONE more little bit of research here. I was listening through the soundtrack to Cue Brick and this track does sound like something Norio Hanzawa would have done:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAU5ItoKTxI There were a couple other tracks that I could see being Hanzawa’s as well, but this one in particular reminded me of Quarth and other more experimental stuff he would later do. Of course, nothing conclusive, but thought I’d share anyway. |
#20
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If it wasn't already common knowledge that he's "Kazuo Hanzawa," which based on the other evidence I'm contending was never correct, and he was always known as either Norio or Ichio, then it would be a SIGNIFICANT stretch that he's "N.KAZUO." Quote:
I'm sure all of those were just drawn from the same pool of common knowledge that Norio is Kazuo, and I'm attacking that fundamental level. If there are interviews, or liner notes, or other official works lists where Cue Brick is included, or other definitive credits as Kazuo, I'm all ears. Given that he's credited in the Canadian Copyrights Database in three games as Norio (Bucky O'Hare, Wario World, and Sin & Punishment 2) and none as a different name, I'm very confident that's his real name. |
#21
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Typos are pretty common in video games, especially Japanese games with English characters. It just seems very odd, considering that an N is very similar looking to an H, that there was a mystery person at Konami who worked on one game and it was at the same time Norio Hanzawa was working there AND some of the music to that game sounds like Hanzawa's (granted, I might be influenced in what I'm hearing because I'm already leaning towards thinking it's him). Maybe Ichio is a newer thing for him? Maybe it's kind of like a new alias or something. Are there any English printed credits with Ichio Hanzawa during the Konami or Treasure days? Like any album releases? Also, isn't there someone we can ask who worked with Norio Hanzawa about what the deal is with these alternate names? Katsuhiko Suzuki, Aki Hata, Atsushi Fujio, or Hidehiro Funauchi? One them is probably contactable and could clear it all up, right? |
#22
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Like, it's not the same thing but in real life I know several different programmers who joined a company, worked on one project, and then left because they didn't like it there or decided they weren't interested in that specific area of coding. It absolutely doesn't seem odd to me that "N.KAZUO" could just be a person who found out that they hated writing video game music. *Assuming that the KSS Miyakawa is the same as the songwriter Miyakawa, he does actually finally have second video game credit 20 years later, but it's just lyrics and background vocals for a song composed by someone else so I don't think it really counts haha. Quote:
The argument that he might be "N.KAZUO" because... N looks like H, and... he used a name that's not read "Kazuo"... for a different company... eight years later (Cue Brick is 1989)... just doesn't hold any water for me without actual evidence, sorry. (And I've been ignoring the music comparisons with Quarth because that's not at all solid evidence either.) There's no way that would seem logical if GMCL hadn't made the mistake that 半澤一雄 is read "Kazuo Hanzawa" despite the contemporary evidence and the rest of the internet had spread that around. Some of them have Facebooks, you could give it a shot. |
#24
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It's pretty trustworthy in my experience, but it's also an anonymously-editable wiki and has had bad mistakes. One relatively recent one I remember is that the Splatoon 2 composer breakdown was total guesswork and was completely revised once the soundtrack album came out.
It, like everything else, doesn't explain why "N.KAZUO" is Hanzawa, so I'm not all that interested in taking its word for it. I'd guess it ultimately just derives from GMCL, like everything else. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ |
#25
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Okay, so I've been emailing with Katsuhiko Suzuki and one, he confirmed that Norio Hanzawa is definitely his real name, so there's no question there. Two, the Ichio vs. Kazuo thing is still unclear. I asked him:
Norio had the alias "半澤一雄" When romanized or pronounced, was the 一雄 in this case meant to be "Ichio" or "Kazuo"? And he wrote back: I never remember using that name when I was involved with him. However, the reading method is "kazuo”. It is so described in Japanese web. I also asked a couple Japanese friends (CHz, I think you know Japanese anyway, so this might be irrelevant) about 一雄 and one wrote me "You might think ichio but usually 一 is kazu" and then "Ichio sounds weird and sounds like American version." So I don't know what to make of that or what Suzuki wrote. But by the way, regardless of how the name was meant to be romanized, and say it was meant to be Ichio, since the misunderstanding of it being Kazuo is so widespread and has been around so long, shouldn't Kazuo also be listed under the aliases? Because at this point, even if not officially, he's been credited in a lot of places as Kazuo Hanzawa. Perhaps if it were listed under the aliases, there could be an asterisk explaining that this might not be an official alias but a commonly known alias? |
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